As a member of Origami USA, I get access to publications, diagrams and a community of folders world wide. It and JOAS are important communities for folders from Oz as we are so far (physically) from everywhere:
Every year, OUSA decorate a Christmas Tree at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. members are asked to contribute models to hang. Continue reading
Cruising around on Fakebook, as one does, I can across a photodiagram series from Naomiki Sato:
Lovely little hummingbirds, folded from 15cm square patterned paper, from bird bases.
I discovered he published a variation also, so thought I could give that a try. I think I like the wider tail one better, but they are both so cute. I have yet to see an actual hummingbird so have no real idea how morphologically accurate this is. Continue reading
Assignment time at school is fairly boring, for the most part, for a teacher. Students have lots to do, you need to be available to help on demand but there is a fair bit of sitting around waiting to be needed:
I had found a bunch of PDF’s explaining briefly how to fold parts of what I had assumed would eventually be a dragon. After trial folding the head and a foot I thought it was something I could do in stages. I (arbitrarily) decided my “standard square” would be the biggest cut from an A3 page. Most parts were then made using this standard.
Origami purists would probably have issues with this design, as there is an element of paper craft in some of the details, the head, for instance, is actually 1 standard square and 6 other bits of paper, folded and (shhh) glued in place. The body was made from 7 separate standard squares, 6 of which were the same, the tail segment was a little different to create the fan end.
I have been a fan of David Brill’s designs ever since I read his book “Brilliant Origami”. Such a lovely touch, breathing life into paper:
This Robin is delightful – I saw hand-drawn diagrams on David’s website and then professionally drawn diagrams in the latest Tanteidan Magazine and knew I needed to try it. I particularly like the free-form nature of the hand-drawn version, making it a bit more of an adventure to fold this bird.
The shape, management of colour change and general model stability is wonderful in this model. There is nice sense of volume, beautiful 3D head, and an animated pose. The subtleties in fold here are such that I found all 5 of them (yes, I got a bit carried away) are all slightly different, making almost a family grouping. Continue reading
In a classic scene from the first Jurassic Park movie, a hunter realises he has just been surrounded by hungry, angry velociraptors, and utters the words “clever girl” before being ripped to shreds:
This delightful mode is really simple to fold, and belongs to that stable of models whose proportions are perfect, detail is sufficient, form is elegant and stable as is – a mark of clever design.
There is lots to love about this little snapper – the head, the placement of the haunches, the gentle curve of the tail – fabulous. Continue reading
I have had this model on my “to do” list for ages – I had shied away from it because of what I perceived was a brutal precreasing sequence and impossible collapse:
That said, with a little large scale and some accurate pre-forming, the laying of the corrugations was fairly straightforward – all based on halves. Laying crenelations across these were fiddly in low light, and had I realised they would be angle bisecting squares later then I think I could have been more accurate. Continue reading
…take your protein pills and put your helmet on.
I have waited an age to fold this model – I was waiting on finding some large format duo paper. When visiting IKEA, I came upon delicious 70cm wide rolls of duo Kraft paper (black on natural and white on natural), and bought a bunch of rolls. 
Folding a 24×24 grid on a virgin square of white/natural Kraft, the collapse lines laid in, the collapse proceeds to the first stage then you re-work each stickey-outey bit. Continue reading
One approach to paper folding starts with a “base” – a form with flaps and general morphology that suits an end goal.
A well-designed base is a thing of beauty, and a flexible tool.
This base, a mutated fish base has really useful properties as demonstrated by these two wildly different folds, both designed by Jose Ma Chaquet from Spain. Continue reading
There are lots of origami tigers – few actually look like tigers – you know, the stripey thing. This model is radically different:
Using a HUGE square (I hand-made a large piece of double tissue – black and yellow), you start with a birdbase, then torture the paper for 2 days to create a pleated ruffle either side of the back ridge that is then zig-zagged to reveal colour slices that become the tiger stripes.
This model is really really intense – it took me ages to even work out what half the folds mean, let alone how to achieve them. Thankfully the double tissue was thin and terrifically strong, so it withstood the torture unscathed. Continue reading
Origami dragons and wyverns seem to be a bit of a “holy grail”, with the more complex gaining almost mythic reputations for breaking folders spirits when they attempt them:
I came upon the diagrams for this charming model shared on fakebook, and it took a moment to hunt down the designer – Shaku on Flickr. Continue reading
I am still on the lookout for a nice travel fold – something I can leave as a stealthy “thankyou” to the hosts of places we will stay overseas:
This is Seiji Nishikawa’s Kangaroo – an amazing 3 part modular that I decided to try folding using hand-made paper.
The model is in 3 parts – upper body and lower body are folded with the same size bit of paper, the joey is a similar fold to the upper body folded much smaller. Continue reading
As I am about to embark on more world travel (see travelblog), I am on the lookout for a fold I can leave in each of the places we stay. Oddly, it is something I do, often hiding little Australiana figures in out of the way places, to hopefully provide delightful surprises for subsequent guests:
Oddly, the very best Koala designs do not come from Australian designers at all, but from places that do not have them. This lovely design is designed by Mindaugas Cesnavicius, a talented folder from Lithuania. Continue reading
Now if we were looking for a mascot for procrastination, I think a panda is the perfect animal because, well, from all accounts, they just couldn’t give a flying f*ck:
It seems they are endangered. My guess is it is due to them losing interest in most things (except eating bamboo) including sex – a real deal breaker genetically speaking I would imagine. Continue reading
It is a little known fact that mice used to originally be triangular – the closer to a right angle triangle, the more genetically successful apparently*:
This charming model is designed by Makoto Yamaguchi, a quirky fold that I found when browsing Tanteidan 106. Continue reading
Riccardo Foschi has a magic sense of design in his models, and this cartoon rabbit is a real charmer:
As an exercise in box pleating, this model takes a 12 x 24 square grid and, via a. Are fully designed collapse teases arms, legs, tummy and detailed head while providing enough paper to model those features in a fun way. Continue reading
